James Adderley has the winners of the New Year sporting events
Good evening, I’m James Adderley and it is indeed with great pleasure that we welcome you to this first delivery of Sports Monday for 2010. New Years Day brings with it a monster cycling show sponsored by Krem and this time around some hundred and ten athletes in the four major categories suited up for this extravaganza that skated across three districts. Defending champion, Marlon Castillo formerly of Santino’s, now riding for Zamir Cycling Team, seeks to be the biggest man in Belize on New Year’s Day for a second year in a row and he always delivers a good show. However, the elite field is seventy men deep today as all the big guns are out to play and add some fifteen foreigners to this mix which spells for maximum entertainment.
Of course, it’s always a blast to witness the pelathon take off and we are underway from the Belize/Mexico border for ninety-three miles of pedal crunching action. At the Libertad cutoff this bunch of five riders tries to execute the perfect breakaway around the curve. But today, the main pack isn’t about to let anyone breakaway only some twenty miles into the ride. Indeed they remain a cohesive unit for most of the way. That is of course, until Armides Rivas of Zamir burst out of the pack around San Pablo to go on a solo flight. The two minute lead appears manageable to the pelathon who remain bunched together as the riders calculate their next move. To the left of your screen Cesar Vaquera of Mexico takes a tumble to the asphalt, but would get up and continue. Speed star Gregory Lovell of Santino’s is also victimized by the spill. Fortunately, he too would continue. Nevertheless, as we journey through Sugar City O.W., it’s the solitary figure of Armides Rivas which commands attention as he continues after picking up one thousand dollars premie. Make no mistake, the pelathon has moved up to within striking distance as they hug the roundabout coming out of Orange Walk. Race official Kwame Scott informs the world that at this time Rivas has sped to a lead of five minutes forty-seven seconds. Folks running away on a solo flight from a determined chase pack is no easy feat and as Rivas begins to fade, the main pack takes advantage and now has the back of his jersey in their sight and Rivas is gobbled up after he has racked up over two thousand dollars from sixteen station prizes. We’re eight miles from Belize City when Miguel Perez of Zamir decides to take things into his own hands. Perez is tracked down by the Mexican under twenty-three rider Cesar Vaquera around the flour mill and we find five riders in position to strike for the 2010 big W.
At the finish it’s Carlos Hernandez, a Guatemalan riding for Zayra Tico del Sureste, grabbing the win, almost unchallenged in three hours, thirty-nine minutes, thirty-seven seconds. His namesake Carlos Manuel Hernandez, riding for Depredadores in the master’s class takes second place. Marcos Solas Arias, a Costa Rican masters rider from Benny’s Megabytes, pulls up third. Cesar Vaquera of Depredadores of Mexico takes fourth place, an under twenty-three rider, while Miguel Perez a Guatemalan riding for Zamir rounds out the top five. For the Belizean fans, Darnell Barrow’s sixth place finish couldn’t ease the disappointment after we were shut out of the top five. At the Junior and Youth level, Daniel Choto of Cayo High Road beat out Juan Jose Cuellar Samos and Emir Aiden Juan for top honors. Meanwhile, Shalini Zabaneh of Sagitun continued her dominance in women’s cycling beating arch-rival Anthea Sutherland by sixteen seconds and forcing Fiona Humes into third. Folks, from our vantage point Carlos Manuel Hernandez of Mexico would have to be the best masters in the New Years Day Race.
Turning to the football scene, we know we’re a week late but we must give justice to the Texmar United Team that lifted the 2009 Belize Bank Super League title by mashing San Felipe Barcelona in the decisive game three of the championship series. You might not believe it folks, but this is the first play of the ballgame as Ashley Torres deals into Carlos Valle whose shot is ably defended by Edwardo Morales. He clears to Wilmer Garcia and his right foot bomb inches over the crossbar. In reply, Oscar Acevedo tests Charlie Slusher with this floater that he successfully intercepts. Thirteen minutes in, Robert Muschamp picks out Ashley Torres, who delivers to Carlos Valle and the South takes the 1-zip lead. Arnold Torres then links up with Ashley Torres who should have done better with this chance. In the meantime, this cheeky slice by Harvey Cruz has goal written all over it until Captain Hilberto Muschamp intervenes and we have a 1-nil Texmar lead at the half.
Three minutes after the resumption of play, Wilmer Garcia uses this spot kick to find Ashley Torres and his header gives Texmar a 2-zip lead and the South is in the driver’s seat. Ashley Torres then gets this open look at goal and fails because he tries to generate too much power instead of concentrating on getting the pill between the sticks. We’re at the sixty-fourth minute when Cesario Rosales gets beaten to this ball by Brent White who taps it home for the 3-zip Texmar lead. It gets worse for San Pedro Barcelona when Ashley Torres beats both the defense and the keeper to make it a 4-nil lead with his second goal at the seventy-eighth minute and the boys from the south begin to exhale. Folks, we’ve got to give San Felipe some credit because they didn’t roll over and die at the eighty-first minute Kenny Witzil floats to Harvey Cruz and El Norte gets on to the scoreboard with the consolation goal. Texmar goes on to claim the 2009 Super League title with a convincing 4-1 big W and now they have twenty-seven thousand, five hundred dollars to split and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
Looking at the awards from the Belize Bank Super League Tournament, Ashley Torres takes home the MVP award for the playoffs. Bernard Linares, his teammate, was elected the best defensive player. Charlie Slusher, also of Texmar – best goalkeeper; Christopher Roches of San Felipe Barcelona walked away with three trophies including most goals, MVP regular season and best midfielder. John Pollard is the best coach. He coaches the Kraal Road FC, Dean Ferril – Best Manager of Placencia FC. Best Forward hails from Punta Gorda’s Paradise Freedom Fighters, Ralph Flores. Each awardee will receive an individual trophy and three hundred dollars. Hey, quite a good package.
Hey folks, that’s our show for today. We invite you back same time, same place, next week. Jah over all, I’m James Adderley.
